CAPE COD COUPLES TELL ALL | Annie & Brian | May 28, 2017

Next up on "Cape Cod Couples Tell All" - meet Annie & Brian!  Jamie had the pleasure of working with them in 2017 at Chatham Bars Inn and it was a weekend to remember!  Even though it has only been a year (Happy Anniversary!) we thought it would be fun to catch up with them and get their thoughts on their Memorial Day Weekend wedding!  Enjoy!

Cape Cod
1. What made you choose Cape Cod for your wedding?
Cape Cod was actually a special place for both of us. Annie’s parents honeymooned on Cape Cod in 1974 and she spent the summer at their house in Harwich for her entire life, and always envisioned getting married on the Cape. Separately, the year before Annie and Brian met, Brian’s parents discovered Chatham Bars Inn and decided it was a great place for the family to come together for Labor Day. Once Annie and Brian started dating, Labor Day on the Cape became a joint family tradition, and, three years later, Brian proposed at Chatham Bars Inn, with both families present, over Labor Day weekend. So, getting married on the Cape was a fairly obvious decision!
 
2. Why would you tell future brides and grooms to get married on Cape Cod? 
The Cape is an “almost” destination wedding. It lets guests be fully focused on the wedding, but it is not too far away from Boston, New York, and other major cities. So it is easy to get to but still feels remote and special. Further, there are so many fun things to do on Cape Cod! We had a blast putting together our website full of recommendations, and sending guests on various trips on the Saturday of our long weekend wedding!

All Photos by Bello Photo

Your Wedding!
1. In a three words, how would you describe your wedding? 
Us. Love Yellow

2. Was your wedding exactly what you had envisioned?
It was even better! We really wanted it to feel down to earth and rustic, yet classy and true to the Cape. We also really wanted to take care of our guests and make sure that everyone had an amazing time (particularly because every single person had to travel to be there!). 
 
3. What was your biggest concern in planning your wedding? 
Honestly, we were just really worried about making everyone happy. We didn’t want anyone to feel excluded or bad, and we wanted to create an environment that made every single person feel like they were part of the fun. We also had a lot of moving pieces, so we were always worried about everything coming together coherently!
 
4. What was your favorite part of the planning process? What was the most difficult part? 
The most difficult part was definitely the guest list! It is never fun to prioritize some people over others, and we were doing that across our own friends and our families. Our biggest piece of advice is that if there are 1 or 2 people on the line invite them! You will never regret having them, but you might regret not inviting them.
Our favorite part was thinking of all of the personal details – what song we would walk in to, getting customized “Brannie” corn hole, etc. We really liked taking the formula and making it scream “us”.
 
 5. What was your favorite part of the wedding? 
It is a tie. The first look was definitely a highlight. It was the only time that day (until we got back to our hotel room at 2 am!) that we got to spend alone together, and it was just really fun to take a pause and laugh about the whole ordeal, eat some ice cream (we did our first look at Schoolhouse Ice Cream in Harwich!), and then to pile my wedding dress into our car and drive to CBI, and show up for the actual thing together as a team. We also just had SO much fun after dinner at our wedding when we totally let loose and danced with our friends and each other and just celebrated!
 
6. Looking back, would you change anything about your wedding? If so, what and why? 
This is super minor, and probably speaks to the fact that there is not really anything we would change. But, if we could change one thing, it is that it was REALLY cold at the (outdoor) ceremony, and we wish we had asked the groomsmen to give the bridesmaids their jackets…both because then the girls would not have been actively shivering the whole time AND because that would have made for some pretty cute pictures!
 
7. Who was your favorite vendor? 
Ummmm, Jamie Bohlin and Cape Cod Celebrations, obviously. I mean, in all seriousness, Jamie and her team made wedding planning a joy. I had so much fun working with Jamie and she made all of the decisions feel very manageable. Working with her and her team was hands down the best decision that I made in the whole process (other than marrying my husband, of course!).
 
But, if I have to pick a vendor other than Jamie, I think I would say Kate Mann and team at Chatham Bars Inn. Honestly, I was really nervous when we selected the venue that the wedding would feel “cookie cutter” because they do so many, but in the end it felt more personal and true to my husband and me than most other weddings we have been to. We could not have done this without the dedication of Kate, the Chef, and everyone else who listened to our vision and absolutely made it happen.
 
8. What do you think your guests would say their favorite part of your wedding was? 
All of it?? I mean, everything except for the cold ceremony! People really liked our pre-dinner dance set, because it broke up the eating between our long cocktail “hour” and the dinner. They also just loved the band and the dancing in general.
 
9. How would you title your wedding?
“How many fun things can we squeeze into one weekend?!”

Wedding Planner
1. Why did you decide to hire a wedding planner? 
Honestly, Chatham Bars Inn actually required that we have a coordinator because we were doing a tent wedding. I think we would have wanted a planner anyway, just because there were so many moving parts, but I didn’t start seriously looking until I had to.
 
2. For upcoming brides, why do you think it is important for them to consider hiring a planner?
This was literally the best decision we made.  She did many things for me (and I was in grad school so had a lot of time, so I wasn't really offloading to her, she added value beyond that).  Most importantly, she:

1. Thought of random things I may not have (e.g., we had a vintage pair of skis as our "guest book" which was super awesome) and just made sure I didn't miss anything
2. Recommended vendors, although I ultimately chose them (she weeded from the world to 5ish options, then I would pick from there)
3. Managed the various vendors for me, particularly in making sure that we had everything we needed, getting the prices as reasonable as possible, and, mission critically, just making sure everything was ready to go in that two week before period and managing EVERYTHING day/weekend of
4. Was an overall thought partner...told me when I was being silly and when I wasn't, helped me prioritize things in terms of budget, etc. Also, frankly, helped me think through some of the weird family things that came up and was a general person who knew the industry and what I was experiencing and I could talk to whenever.
5. Orchestrated all of the day of stuff-- literally, one of our buses got in an accident and we NEVER HEARD ABOUT IT. She just took care of everything. YOu DO NOT WANT TO BE THINKING ABOUT ANYTHING ON THE DAY BEFORE OR OF YOUR WEDDING. TRUST ME. Even if you think you are that chill cool got it together couple, just trust me, weddings bring out the crazy in you and everyone you know.  It is just better if you aren't worried about whether the hors d'oeuvres are going out on time when you are trying to manage pictures with grandma and a nutty photographer.  Also, you don't want to have to move flowers from one place to another or make sure the ceremony programs are in place or ANY of that stuff.  You just want to do you that day.  

 
3. What was it like working with a planner? What was your overall experience like? 
Jamie is so down to earth and straight forward that working with her was incredibly easy! My experience felt like Jamie gave me a high level “work plan” (as in, we should be thinking about flowers, photographer, and a band this month), I gave her some thoughts about my vision for those things, she came back with some options, and I overanalyzed each option and made a decision. She let me be controlling and picky while making sure I checked all of the boxes and helping me find vendors and ideas that really fit with my vision. It just made me feel like no balls would be dropped, but I could still plug in as much (or as little) as I wanted to.
 
4. Why would you recommend Cape Cod Celebrations over other companies? 
I can’t imagine a better thought partner than Jamie – she is smart, funny, thoughtful, and totally “gets it” when you explain your vision. Also, she knows EVERYONE!!! She used to work at Chatham Bars Inn, so she easily navigated working with them, and she clearly has fantastic relationships with all of the other vendors. I can’t tell you how many vendors absolutely raved about Jamie in side conversations – I just think that by working with her you get a leg up internally because she is amazing AND you get a leg up externally because all of the other vendors love her and will work with her to create your vision.

Wedding Advice
1. What advice would you give other brides about planning a wedding? 

1. Give your husband tasks! With timelines! Don’t do it all yourself, because planning together is actually really fun and romantic.
2. Stop worrying about other people! It is your day! Try not to offend anyone, and then make the day / weekend about you guys.
3. Pick the 3 things you care about the most and then over-invest in those things, and don’t get worked up about the others. For me, I really cared about the band, so I was neurotic about selecting the band and sending them every song I liked and didn’t like, etc. I did NOT care about flowers, so I forced myself to be more relaxed about those and not engage as much except for the high level vision.

 
2. What was most helpful to you in the planning process? 
Jamie and her timeline. I had my own timeline, but she knew when things had to get done in order to be right for the wedding, so made sure that we didn’t miss anything along the way.

How’s married life!? 
Amazing! In many ways, very similar, but in many ways much more chill and familial. We have a puppy now – who is AMAZING – and learning about each other as “parents” has been a whole new adventure! We love being a pseudo little family and finally just stepping back and saying, hey, if all we want to do on Friday night is cuddle our puppy and watch Star Wars, let’s just do that!

View All of the fabulous photos of
Annie & Brian's Wedding Here!